


Breathe, Fight, Laugh and Love

by RENielsen



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Balloons, Enjoy!, Established Relationship, Fights, Happy Ending, Helium - Freeform, LMAO, M/M, Marriage, This is ridiculous, alternative universe, couple counselling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 08:45:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10356609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RENielsen/pseuds/RENielsen
Summary: “Are you serious…” Louis begins, but Niall just sends him a mean look and point at the balloon. The message is clear,if you want to say anything then inhale the helium.“Alright then,” Louis mutters to himself, even more annoyed with the blond than he was before. He takes the balloon to his mouth, takes a deep breath, and inhales the helium.“Are you freaking serious?!”or nouis being ridiculous because why not





	

Louis dies a little inside when he sees the two balloons in Niall hands. The blond furiously hands over one of the balloons. The passive aggressive way he takes a seat on the couch, makes Louis roll his eyes. Like the child he is, Niall has decided to take a place as far away from Louis as he possibly can, while having a big pout on his lips. His eyes are stormy, though, and Louis has a feeling he only has to say a single word to make the younger lad strangle him with his bare hands.

They’ve been fighting since they got up this morning. It started with something as stupid as the fact that Niall forgot to put the milk back into the fridge last night before bed, and that they now were out milk so Louis couldn’t possibly get his cereal like he does every morning before having to go to work. Niall knows how cranky he gets without his tea and cereal.

They parted in the morning without a kiss, without a goodbye even.

It definitely didn’t get better through the day. Niall texted him around noon, to ask Louis to buy groceries on his way home, but Louis was still cross from the morning, and besides that he always get off late on Thursdays. If he has to go grocery shopping before going home, then he won’t be home till sometime past six in the evening. So he says no. It takes exactly three seconds from he sends the text until he’s got Niall screaming in his ear about being an lazy arse, and that he too has got a lot to do without having to babysit his husband. Louis hangs up on him, before he ends up saying something nasty in return.

After that it kinda just evolved, and Louis doesn’t even know what they’re fighting about anymore.

Not that it’s something new lately. They’ve been fighting more than they’ve had peaceful conversations. And when they aren’t fighting, the only conversations they’re having is ones like ‘we’re out of tea’ and ‘hand me the salt?’.

Sometimes when it’s really bad, Niall in frustration rips the bed from pillows and duvets and sleeps on the couch instead. At those occasions Louis feels the worst. Both because he sleeps like shit with the only blanket he’s able to find in the house, but also because Niall shouldn’t feel like he has to run away from Louis.

Louis doesn’t even know when their relationship became this bad, how they went from being so fucking in love to whatever they’re supposed to be now.

Maybe they just did everything at hundred miles per hour, and then at some point ended up crashing because it’s hard to see the full picture when everything is going to quickly. They got married when Louis was twenty and Niall eighteen, only a couple of months after starting to date. Louis loved him so much, knew already then that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Niall.

It’s funny how fast the night changes, how fast the good part of their love seemed to rotten. Louis is now twenty-four and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that their marriage is on the edge of tipping over.

Last month Liam pulled him to the side, and he didn’t even have to ask for Louis to break down in tears, choking on the words as he explained the situation. Louis knows that Harry had the same conversation with Niall, though he has no idea if Niall actually wants to save what they have together anymore. Maybe Louis has ruined it all by now. Maybe there is nothing left to pick up and put together. Louis doesn’t want to think like that, because even with all the fights and screaming at each other, then Louis still has that childlike idea that he should grow old with Niall, and that Niall is that one special person for him.

For a while they tried to keep their voiced in a normal tone, and to stop the constant argument, but none of them seemed to be able to keep it that way. Liam and Harry ganged up on them last week, and send them to therapy.  Apparently they didn’t want their ‘parents’ to divorce, as Harry jokingly said, though Louis knows that both of them were serious.

Niall had asked them to fuck off and stay out of other people’s business. Still Louis was the one who proceed to be late for their first session with the couple counsellor. It had taken the therapist three sessions to very flustered suggesting them to try using helium balloons next time they were fighting.

Louis still isn’t quite sure _what_ the freaking point with that is, but apparently Niall must be desperate enough to listen to the dumb advice and give it a try. Which is how they’re end up in this situation, sitting on each their side of the sofa with a red balloon each filled with helium in their hands. Louis can’t even begin to think about where Niall has gotten the helium from.

“Are you serious…” Louis begins, but Niall just sends him a mean look and point at the balloon. The message is clear, _if you want to say anything then inhale the helium._

“Alright then,” Louis mutters to himself, even more annoyed with the blond than he was before. He takes the balloon to his mouth, takes a deep breath, and inhales the helium. “ _Are you freaking serious?!”_

Niall can’t quite hide the smile beginning to show on his face when Louis talks, and Louis can’t quite blame him, as he sound absolutely ridiculous. And it’s so hard to stay mad, when Niall takes a breath from his own balloon, and squeaks out a, “ _deathly serious. Now please keep going. If I remember correctly then you were telling me I’m an idiot.”_

To be honest then Louis doesn’t even know what to say anymore. Can’t even remember what they were fighting about before Niall abruptly left the living room, just to return with the balloons minutes later. This is the most stupid thing he’s ever been exposed to. Louis doesn’t care what anyone says, they’re not going back to that therapist.

When he doesn’t say anything at all, then Niall just sends him a provocative glance, before inhaling some more helium and then going on himself.

“ _I hate how you can’t seem to take any responsibility. How you treat me like I’m your mum, and like you got the right to be annoyed and angry when everything isn’t perfect.”_ Niall takes another breath from the balloon, before continuing. “ _You’re a grown arse man, and I’m not a housewife from the fifties who’s just here to please you.”_

It’s hard taking him seriously at all when his voice is one big squeaking noise. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t just yell back as if on instinct. He actually has to take the time to let the words sink in, and they hurt. They hurt so deeply, because Louis knows there’re true. He hasn’t been treating Niall fairly in any way for a long time. He breathes in the helium before answering.

_“I’m sorry,”_ he tries to whisper, though the words almost disappear because of what the helium does to his voice. Oh god this is terrible. “ _I’m sorry!”_ he tries again, this time a bit louder, which just makes the whining sound even worse.

Niall cracks up first. The laughter is loud and bright, something Louis hasn’t heard for a very long time. It makes sure the annoyance is kept down, and Louis can’t help but smile back in return.

_“You do realise this is so dumb, right?”_ he then asks, which just makes it even worse. Niall sounds like he’s beginning to run out of breath from just laughing, and Louis has a hard time not joining him. He end up doing, mostly because a warm and funny feeling is beginning in his belly, like he’s got a couple of butterflies bashing around in there.

So he laughs. He laughs until he’s got tears in his eyes, and until he’s sobbing from pure laughter. Every time he’s close to stopping then Niall begins again, making him completely unable to.

In that moment Louis is reminded why he fell in love with Niall in the first place. He fell in love with his smile and the way he laughed whenever Louis said something funny. He fell in love with the way his eyes would wrinkle together cutely, and how dimples would show on his cheeks. And Louis realises that he’s still in love with all of these things. How could he possibly not be?

He inhales the last of the helium in his balloon, and says, “ _I love you.”_ And he means it. It’s the first time any of them has said those words in ages, but it doesn’t change just how much Louis means them.

Niall eyes become big, and then he begins crying. Not from laughter this time, Louis knows. Louis has his arms around the younger boy in less than a second. His heart hurts when Niall keeps crying out every bit of sorrow, every little word yelled in anger and frustration.

Maybe they did rush everything back then. Maybe they aren’t perfect for each other. Maybe they’d even be better off without each other. Louis doesn’t care, though. Not when Niall sobs back, “I love you too. So, so much. Please never give up on me.” Louis won’t. Couldn’t even if he wanted to.

And yeah, that won’t be their last fight with each other, not even close, but Niall always makes sure to have helium and balloons hidden away for whenever it’s needed. It’s hard keeping a fight up when all you wanna do is laugh. And Louis just loves Niall, there’s not much more to that.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is just stupid, but I was bored and thought I'd share it anyway. Hope it wasn't all bad lmao. Kudos and comments always appreciated! Hope you enjoyed reading :)
> 
> You can also find me on tumblr at nialliesmiley if you wanna!


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